Are we increasingly becoming an overly regulated and controlled society?

July 04, 2012 , 5:52 PM by Alana Mahony

By Sam McIntosh & Neil Robbins – ABC Drive social commentators.

Have you ever experienced a situation where a process, a system or a piece of legislation directed your actions and you were made to feel powerless? A situation which appeared scripted with a predicted outcome and impossible to be anything different?

From exceeding the speed limit by 3kph to being screened, swabbed and padded down at airports to “smart” car park’s that send alerts to parking detectors, our freedoms are rapidly being eroded. This is a somewhat recent phenomenon where developments in technology are only making it easier to check-up & monitor our every move. Legislation is drafted, laws are created and personal boundaries redefined. Once upon a time there was often space for consideration and understanding of individual circumstances. Common sense could prevail and regulators exercised a logical process of fairness in their deliberations. But we have now created a new breed of authority figure who produce excessive fines for your minor infringements without consideration of an individual’s circumstances. How did we get to this place and more importantly where are we headed?

Society needs guidelines, regulations and rules in which to operate effectively – otherwise we have anarchy. But have you noticed things have changed in recent years? Not only is the process of living in our society becoming more inflexible and rigid, but it is also becoming vastly more expensive. You break the rules and there is a consequence. How often have we heard the term “revenue raising” when considering for example the cost of speeding fines or parking infringement notices. They seem to be totally out of kilter with the actual impact of the regulation that was broken. You must pay the penalty! It seems we are powerless to fight these “new taxes” with little scope for appeal as you know it will end up costing you more.

And just because we have these regulations and rules – who says they are right. Who are these arbitrators of justice that decided what is right and wrong. Remember the hardware store in Caulfield, Penhalluricks, where the proprietor chose to spend 19 days in goal and pay half a million dollars in fines in order to bring about Sunday trading.

Guidelines and plans with a pre-determined outcome seem to be a feature in many parts of our current lives. From local, state and federal governments it seems that there are growing layers of bureaucracy that involve hurdles, hoops and in many cases it seems like mountains that can often take a long time to climb…. at great cost. We see many individuals, business and groups throwing in the towel because it is all too hard, too time consuming, too invasive or just too expensive. We see the processes through the legal system posing all sorts of challenges for those individuals fighting for what they believe. Is this taking away our will to be the best we can, to strive for success or is it encouraging us to give in?